The Jersey shore may be in deep trouble.
Researchers predicted the sea levels along the N.J. coast may increase as much as 1.5 feet as soon as the year 2050, a Rutgers University news release reported.
If this prediction comes true the "one-in-10 year flood level" in Atlantic City will reach unprecedented levels that would overshadow even Hurricane Sandy.
"It's clear from both the tide gauge and geological records that sea level has been rising in the mid-Atlantic region at a foot per century as a result of global average sea-level rise and the solid earth's ongoing adjustment to the end of the last ice age," Ken Miller, a professor of earth and planetary sciences in Rutgers' School of Arts and Sciences said in the news release."
In the sands of the New Jersey coastal plain, sea level is also rising by another four inches per century because of sediment compaction - due partly to natural forces and partly to groundwater withdrawal. But the rate of sea-level rise, globally and regionally, is increasing due to melting of ice sheets and the warming of the oceans," he said.
By mid-century the ocean is expected to look much different across the mid-Atlantic region. Climate change could cause the Gulf Stream significantly weaken, which has the potential to raise the ocean levels surrounding the U.S. a full foot. The levels could even rise by as much as 2.3 feet by 2050 and a whopping 5.9 feet by the end of the century.
"The geological sea-level records show that it's extremely likely that sea-level in New Jersey was rising faster in the 20th century than in any century in the last 4300 years," Andrew Kemp of Tufts University, said.
The sea level is believed to have risen about eight inches in the 20th century across certain regions. This means 83,000 people from N.J. and N.Y. were exposed to the effects of Superstorm Sandy that would not have been before the sea level increase.
